Movie Review :: The Boys in the Boat goes for the gold on Blu-ray

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The Boys in the Boat is a sports drama based on the #1 New York Times bestselling non-fiction book written by Daniel James Brown. The film is about the 1936 University of Washington rowing team that competed for gold at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. This inspirational true story follows a group of underdogs at the height of the Great Depression as they are thrust into the spotlight and take on elite rivals from around the world.

REVIEW

It’s almost hard to believe that The Boys in the Boat, now available on Blu-ray from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, is George Clooney’s ninth directorial effort. You would imagine that a movie star of Clooney’s wattage would lead to more high-profile efforts from the director’s chair. The guy has been Batman and Danny Ocean and Mr. Fox and Michael Clayton, after all. But no, the movies he has directed are often dependable and well-made, but forgettable. Remember Leatherheads or The Monuments Men or The Midnight Sky or The Tender Bar? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t.

The Boys in the Boat is in the same boat, but that doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining or a good time. It is both of those things. Clooney could probably pick flashier projects, sure. But at the end of the day, he’s a movie star and he got to that point because he knows what an audience wants. This inspirational sports drama delivers exactly how you want it to deliver.

Simply, the film is the story of the 1936 University of Washington men’s rowing team and their quest to compete at the Berlin Olympics. That’s what Letterboxd, Rotten Tomatoes, and Warner’s own press release say, at least. But that’s kind of a spoiler because that doesn’t happen until the final 30 minutes of the movie and the suspense is supposed to build on whether or not they could even qualify, much less actually go.

The film largely follows the character of Joe Rantz, played by British breakout Callum Turner. Joe’s mother died when he was young and his father abandoned him when he was just 14 years old, so he’s spent the last few years fending for himself. He’s gotten into UW, which is great, but he’s struggling to pay tuition, which isn’t great. Odd jobs just aren’t cutting it and he’s about to have to drop out when he hears that the rowing team offers pay and boarding. Despite never having rowed a day in his life, he tries out for the team. How hard can it be? He’s naturally athletic and a hard worker.

The answer is very hard. The Boys in the Boat makes eight-man rowing look like the single most difficult physical activity you could ever attempt. Head coach Al Ulbrickson is played by Joel Edgerton in one of the more obvious bits of casting I’ve seen in a while. If you’re a middle-aged white guy who mainly deals in drama, you have to play a coach at some point. I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them. Kurt Russell, Dennis Quaid, Hugh Jackman, Ben Affleck, Gene Hackman — they all did it. You simply have to serve your time. This was Edgerton’s turn.

Luckily for Edgerton’s coach, his junior varsity team, complete with Rantz, is the most naturally gifted group of rowers he’s ever seen. Rowing is insanely difficult, but apparently these guys picked up it pretty fast. I’m not exactly sure how both things are true. Maybe it’s better explained in the source material, Daniel James Brown’s book of the same name. They’re so good, in fact, that they quickly usurp the experienced varsity squad, taking down all the competition in the process.

As you can expect (and, if you’re at all interested in seeing this film, as you probably hope), the film is the standard inspirational sports story. Despite their natural talent, the Huskies are the presumed underdogs because of their inexperience. There’s also the socio-economic issue at play because they don’t have the funding of schools like Cal or Yale, much less that of international powers like Nazi Germany. Rantz works as a stand-in for the metaphor, the character we follow that personifies the whole struggle. Turner is more talented than the script gives him room for, painting him with broad strokes, but he’s naturally charismatic and likable.

The same can be said about all of them. Edgerton’s coach is gruff and worrisome. That’s how coaches are written. Hadley Robinson plays Rantz’s girlfriend and aside from her natural effervescence, that’s the end of her characterization. Sam Strike plays the best friend and does a lot of best friend things, like offering advice and patting him on the back.

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Odds are, that simplicity won’t bother you too much. It didn’t bother me. Movies like this serve a purpose: give you something to root for and root on. And this does that. It’s uncomplicated. The races are interesting, largely because the team was best known for getting faster as a race progressed, which means each one just gets more and more exciting. Give me an underdog American team to root for, teach me a little something about the contextual history, and deliver the goods.

Clooney’s done this a few times now, promise and deliver. I just wish he would reach for more. I seemed to be the only person who enjoyed his weirdo satire Suburbicon. If his work with the Coen Brothers or Wes Anderson is any inclination, that’s more his sense of humor. I’d like more of that, please. I can get movies like this anywhere.

VIDEO

Martin Ruhe has become Clooney’s go-to cinematographer and it’s easy to see why. It’s all well-shot and nice to look at. The period coloring is appropriate and encompassing. It’s all nicely produced on the Blu-ray disc. There’s no 4k disc, which will upset a few collectors, but it was the right call. We don’t need anything more. Editor’s

Note: The film is available in a 4K format through iTunes.

AUDIO

A new Alexandre Desplat score in Dolby Atmos? That’ll make the collectors happy. And anybody, really. It sounds great. Multiple languages are available in subs and dubs.